Discovering information

Key points

1. Learn about the increased importance of innovation in information discovery
2. Learn about barriers to innovation
3. Learn about an innovative information discovery tool
4. Find handout that mirrors these slides at bit.ly/utrecht-discovery

But much more information available than to cover in 20 minutes!

Importance of discovery

1. Discovery is proportional to production of information
2. Digital age allows for many ways to discover/consume information

• No longer limited by physical restrictions of paper :-)

Discovery and production

Importance of discovery

1. Production exploded!
2. Has discovery changed much in last decades?

• digitization of databases
• speed of discovery has changed
• Has mode of discovery changed?

Production changes

1. Previously, discovery primarily related to scholarly reports
2. Now, more and more data discovery!

• Due to easier options to share
• Due to increased data production
• Due to efficiency in research process

DataCite

1. DataCite is the CrossRef of data
2. Aggregates metadata about data sets from ICPSR, DANS, and other trusted repositories

• See also re3data.org for finding trusted repositories to post data to

Data production

Data discovery

1. Data can be discovered reactively when reading a paper
2. Or by central searches for relevant data
3. What is more common?
4. How much data that is in papers can be found with central searches?

Combining data and reports

Barriers to improved discovery

1. Innovation requires diversity

• Diversity of innovators
• Diversity of content
• Diversity of business models
• Diversity of …?

2. As such, for maximum innovation in information discovery, content needs to be available
3. For metadata, already possible with CrossRef, DataCite.
4. For more in-depth discovery (beyond abstract), copyrighted material limits innovation

Innovations in information discovery

1. Open Access content gives us a glimpse into the potential for innovation
2. Because content is still limited, innovation is only in early stages

• Predict that we’ll see more innovation as more content becomes reusable also for commercial purposes

3. Some examples already present

Example: OpenKnowledge Maps

Example: OpenKnowledge Maps

Example: OpenKnowledge Maps

Example: OpenKnowledge Maps

Example: OpenKnowledge Maps

Example: papr

Example: papr

Example: papr

Exercise: information discovery

1. Determine a topic you want to do some literature search on.
2. Conduct a literature search in a database of your choice (Utrecht University has access to Scopus)
3. Conduct the same literature search in OpenKnowledge Maps
4. What is the added value of each search?
5. Do you think the searches are alternatives or complements in discovery of information?
6. In a utopia, how would you like to be able to discover information? Get funky with ideas, nothing’s too crazy!